A tree falls in the woods ...

In 1956, a curious little 90-minute docudrama called “Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of the Flying Saucers” hit U.S. theaters. Despite what sounded like a compelling teaser — i.e., the inclusion of two previously classified pieces of UFO footage — the film tanked at the box office. Maybe it was the clunky script, which sounded like it might’ve been written on thorazine. Maybe it was the robotic dialogue or its soporific pacing, delivered by an odd mix of actors and real-life participants in said events.

At any rate, this was the first time Americans got a peek at the so-called Tremonton footage, taken on July 2, 1952, by off-duty career Navy veteran Delbert Newhouse (who just happened to be the service’s chief photographer) as he drove through Utah on vacation. By that time, the 46-second clip — which showed anywhere from 7 to 16 round white objects maneuvering against a clear blue sky — had been analyzed by Wright Patterson AFB Photo Reconnaissance Lab and the U.S. Navy Photo Interpretation Center in Washington. After subjecting the film to more than 1,000 man-hours of scrutiny, authorities were officially stumped after scratching birds, balloons, and conventional aircraft from the list of suspects. Those were the days when an ongoing official investigation into UFOs allowed military sources to speak more candidly on the record.

Nevertheless, those inconclusive assessments didn’t stop the CIA-convened “Robertson panel,” or the University of Colorado’s subsequent “Condon committee,” from resolving the mystery with the discredited bird-flock scenario. And that was pretty much the final word in this now-obscure early chapter of America’s conundrum with The Great Taboo.

Last week, a reader directed me to a lonely blog post by one Jimmy Robinson of Las Cruces, N.M. Robinson listed his credentials as a former White Sands Missile Range systems analyst and a New Mexico State University astronomer. He previously surfaced in cyberspace in 2001, when he offered personal recollections to a web site conducting an oral history project on the late astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.

A WWII Navy veteran like Newhouse, Robinson made his one and only venture into the blogosphere for this reason: “I'm not getting any younger, and just want to make sure my account finally gets into the record one way or another.” He claimed he saw the Tremonton UFOs — the ones flying the same complex formations Newhouse recorded — in early July 1952. Although Robinson was in eastern New Mexico, more than 600 miles from Tremonton, he was certain the events were related. Most impressive to him was the “smooth machine-like quality of motion” of his sighting, which he detailed in exacting terms.

Robinson appears to be a keen observer, and his conscientiousness should make us wonder what American culture has cost science when it comes to contributing evidence. “The night after the sighting I informed my family, as well as two of my best friends,but nobody seemed to take me seriously,” he writes, and he “became afflicted with the same fear of ridicule experienced by so many UFO observers over the years.

“It didn't help that, on the very first class day of an instrumentation course I took,” Robinson continues, “the professor emphatically warned the students that there would be absolutely no mention of UFOs in his class because such things were physically impossible, and any such discussion would be a complete waste of time!”

Robinson revisited his sighting by accident, in the late 1960s, when he caught the 1956 flick on TV. Seeing the Newhouse footage of the UFO formation he had tried to forget left him “thoroughly shaken.”

De Void attempted unsuccessfully to reach Robinson via the contact information on the Tombaugh chatter site, so one assumes the worst. Robinson made no hyperbolic claims in what would appear to be his final statement, no ET assertions or divination of intergalactic craft. He merely steered the conversation back to the original data, back before the spin doctors worked their magic and the USAF actually told the truth. “Absolute proof that the objects in the Newhouse movie cannot be explained,” he wrote, “is contained in simple scientific measurements of the film.”

If only admitting “I don’t know” weren’t such a sign of weakness in this country ...

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Most scientists are unable to say "I don't know". At least most scientists realize that it's foolish to offer clearly untenable explanations. This is a good reason for a scientist NOT to get involved with the subject. Not so with skepti-bunkers and politicians. They keep up the charade, regardless of how foolish they look. It's interesting that it doesn't seem to bother them.

I guess the truth is just a lie repeated > n number of times....

freeman69

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 11:44 am

Mr Robinson provides a good description of the qualitative aspects of his sighting. There are many sightings where witness descriptions indicate something truly unusual was seen. While these incidents are reduced to anecdotes (and not considered scientific evidence) they still provide ample reason for continued investigation.

Curt Collins

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:23 pm

The information about the Tombaugh discussion alone is interesting to me. There was a lot of strange things flying around White Sands that puzzled some of our brightest minds!

ThomasT

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 8:21 pm

wow, he saw, and.. Meier spoke with et and recorded it. Really"

Open http://www.theyfly.com, read The Pleiadian Mission by Randloph Winters, see the uTubes of Winters and Meier, and then you decide.

Waiting for nasa, seti, astronomers or the Govts to tell you the truth is over- optimistic.

Before you scream fraud/hoax, note the Meier published data on our Solar System sometimes years ahead of nasa's discoveries, that given him by et or from his personal observation from aboard et craft.

Archie1954

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 11:00 pm

The weakness is not in saying "I don't know", it is in the inevitable lies that are force fed to the population by zombie like American government officials. They lie through their teeth and when a people are lied to consistently, all trust is lost. That is where the US is today. Lies are the flavor of the century and truth is squashed in the dust. America is on the wrong side of history.

The sighting also recalls the Farmington, N.M., and Lubbock lights events of the same era. And as Robinson recalls, his sighting was days before the Washington, D.C., flap. The unexplained phenomena was more bold back then, except for perhaps Phoenix.

[...] Last time out, De Void visited Robinson’s only blogpost, about being an eyewitness to the famous Tremonton UFOs 60-plus years ago. De Void had a few followup questions, but some apparently ancient contact links were busted and the trail was cold for the retired astronomer named “Jimmy Robinson.” But as the relentless Frank Warren of The UFO Chronicles pointed out, maybe one "Jimmie Robinson" of Las Cruces, N.M., was the guy. [...]

Bruce Maccabee

Friday, November 29, 2013 at 10:56 am

Part of the 1000 hours of analysis time was spent on the other famous early movie, the Great Falls, Montana film of August 1950. The NPIC (Navy photo interpretation center) analysts were criticized by Robertson Panel member for trying to make a convincing connection between the two films. Apparently the Blue Book team didn't even mention Newhouse's testimony about what the objects looked like when they were a lot closer. And they didn't make use of Mrs. Newhouse's testimony.

terry the censor\

Friday, November 29, 2013 at 3:42 pm

> The inability to say "I don't know" is at the heart of most debunkers' zeal.

It is also an inability of UFO zealots.

nofooln

Saturday, December 28, 2013 at 5:23 pm

The 1956 movie "UFO" is currently on the Netflix streaming service for those who may be interested.

Last modified: November 26, 2013
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